Jump to content

Graham Wallace must shake up Rangers


North Rd

Recommended Posts

1122058346.jpg

The steaming mess at Rangers has now been dumped on to the desk of Graham Wallace. Picture: SNS

  • by TOM ENGLISH

Updated on the 16 January

2014

00:22

Published 16/01/2014 00:00

I have now Edited OUT he crap part of his piece, this is the part which is open for discussion

It is estimated that Rangers are losing about £1m a month and that come April they will have just £1m in the bank. Around that point they will be going to the supporters looking for season ticket money for 2014-15, a support that they are continuing to refuse to engage with despite their lofty talk at the agm last month of some new spirit of openness. There hasn’t been any contact, unless you count a letter from a lawyer acting on behalf of some board members to a fans’ group. The upshot of the communiqué was that the Sons of Struth supporters’ lobby felt they had no option but to shut down their Facebook page.

Somebody should be talking to the fans. Wallace, you can forgive, because he has so many other things to be doing, most notably speaking with McCoist about cost-cutting. The questions are obvious but the solutions are less straightforward.

According to their website, Rangers have 56 full professionals or professional youth players on their books. According to Celtic’s website, they have now got 50, including their newest recruit Stefan Johansen. Wallace will, no doubt, be asking about this. “Why are there so many players here? How many are worth what we’re paying them? How many can we lose?”

Why are there so many? That’s one for McCoist. In the summer he signed Steve Simonsen as his reserve goalkeeper. Simonsen is a fine goalie and proved as much at Dundee last season, but Rangers didn’t need him then and they don’t need him now. They have Cammy Bell and they also have Scott Gallacher, a 24-year-old who has been at the club since 2006 and who has played only a handful of games. For the less than arduous task of ­sitting on the Rangers bench and, very, very ­occasionally, covering for Bell in matches, why not go with Gallacher and save yourself the expense of ­Simonsen? We don’t know how much Simonsen is being paid – more than Gallacher for sure – but whatever it is, it’s money for old rope given that his sum total of minutes played since joining Rangers stands at zero.

It’s easy to envisage Wallace going through the Rangers squad and continually asking a simple question. Steve Simonsen – why? Emilson Cribari – why? Dean Shiels – why? David Templeton – why? Richard Foster – why? Steven Smith – why? Ian Black, on those wages, why? All of these, and others, are on more money than they could expect to get elsewhere and won’t be in any great hurry to leave. So, for now, Rangers are stuck with them because they can’t afford to make them redundant. This is the legacy of the club’s scattergun accumulation of players they didn’t particularly need to meet the challenge they were faced with. Namely, the Third Division last season and League 1 this season.

Wallace is having to deal with the consequences of such financial waste. He is surrounded by “money men” at the club – Stockbridge, Ken Olverman, Andrew Dickson and the accountancy firm Active Corporate – but he has gone outside Ibrox for a financial advisor in the shape of Philip Nash. On one level that looks like more waste. On another, given the state of the club, you can understand why he’s looking for fresh thinking on the fiscal front. The incumbents have not exactly ­covered themselves in glory.

For years, Rangers celebrated men – Murray et al – who spent vast amounts of money and improved the team. The guy they should be celebrating now is the one who calls a halt to the financial waste and makes the club face its reality, even if his actions run the risk of putting him in conflict with his manager.

There will be bleating, but only by those who are mired in the past. Those who truly conform to that much-abused description of “having the best interests of the club at heart” would say bring on the cost-cutting to stave off disaster.

In trying to move on from the damage of the past, Wallace knows what the club needs to do. But it promises to be a tough and lonely journey for him.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • Replies 54
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Far too much is made of the penny shares IMO ... it was Green and his consortiums new company, you award yourself shares in your own company at nominal/minimal value - so what

I don't grudge him it ... glad he made a few quid for himself tbh

Link to post
Share on other sites

Tom English?

I'll pass!

Unfortunatly if you get past the name, much of what he says in this article is correct. However, typically with English the condesending tone of his article detracts from the actual content.

Aside from the tone, his comment "when in actual fact all they had was credit and mountains of debt" has been shown by history to be absolute rubbish - we had debt, (approx £19M as i recall ) but it was sustainable and being managed until the financial crisis and the banks decided to play hardball and Murray lost his bottle. When you look at other clubs currenty in the SPFL, that £19M debt for Rangers - given our size - is almost negligable, yet is consistently spouted (wrongly) as the reason for our demise.

Link to post
Share on other sites

As usual with English he makes some good points but they are hidden by his own scattergun approach and somewhat one dimensional view.

That said the point re how many players we have is valid and has been discussed to death on here.....nothing against any individuals but we have far to much deadweight picking up money for nothing.....if it's true we have more "professional" players at our club than Celtic then that is a disgrace and needs to be rectified ASAP!

Link to post
Share on other sites

1p shares are the standard way to start a company, dont really see why this gets everyone so angry. They put up the initial cash to get the holding company up and running, providing the money to buy our club in the first place. They all said it was motivated by money, so no surprise when someone cashes in their investment.

At least we still have people willing to buy the shares in large quantities.

Link to post
Share on other sites

The most unbelievable stat is that we have more players than the current champion and they had c.l to be worried about. Looking at that its fair to say the board (old members) and football management have been wreck less and care less when it comes to recruiting players at renewing contracts. Tge squad we have at the present time is enough to earn promotion next season, if I were wallace I wouldn't be renewing mccoists contract cos all he wants to do is spend spend spend. Costs need cut. The management team must go along with any player that deal is up in the summer

Link to post
Share on other sites

I agree, but the middle part about how many players we have on board as professionals shocked me..........and if i had cut the rest out, someone would have asked why!

Tom English writing a story on how Wallace must 'shake Up' Rangers?

Rangers haters like English don't want anyone to 'Shake Up' Rangers, he's a liar so for me it's a non-story from the off.

Link to post
Share on other sites

What a cretin of a journalist, his anti Rangers brain cell decries us for living on "credit and a mountain of debt".

This one brain cell refuses to accept that every SPL Club, in particular, his beloved septic, are living on credit and mountainous debt. Even the SPL had to change its name for living on credit and a mountain of debts, but we hear nothing about that either. Why does his editor accept the same old shit week after week, regurgitating the same old shit. I would tell him to find out about why the SPFL still do not have a sponsor or even better, find out about septics land deals and their banking facilities.

This cretin is totally obsessed with the only show in town.

Link to post
Share on other sites

English article and Green mentioned in seconds. Oor Chuck certainly haunts the man of confused heritage and limited journalistic talent. Cant wait for these rags to die.

That's how I know Green was doing a good job against our enemies - the fact cunts like Guidi, Spiers, English, Walker etc can't stop mentioning him first chance they get.

Link to post
Share on other sites

"According to their website, Rangers have 56 full professionals or professional youth players on their books. According to Celtic’s website, they have now got 50"

Unbelievable - truly unbelievable

If that is true then mccoist should be sacked for not filling that bench last weekend

Link to post
Share on other sites

If that is true then mccoist should be sacked for not filling that bench last weekend

I was thinking along the same lines after reading that (obv no sacked for not filling the bench, but it's still a point) ... surely there was a player or two he could put in? makes no sense.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Upcoming Events

    • 30 March 2024 15:00 Until 17:00
      0  
      Rangers v Hibernian
      Ibrox Stadium
      Scottish Premiership

×
×
  • Create New...